Former Gator Jac Caglianone is making one team look especially foolish from draft night

If we rewind to the 2024 MLB Draft, it felt a bit like Gator slugger Jac Caglianone wasn’t being fully appreciated by MLB scouts and GMs. He ended up going to No. 6 to the Kansas City Royals, but there were definitely a couple of spots before that he easily could have gone, and no one would have blinked an eye.

As things have played out, most teams in the top ten are probably happy with their draft pick from 2024. But one team in particular chose a player from the Georgia Bulldogs over Caglianone, and one has to wonder how much they regret their decision after watching Caglianone blast off twice more on Tuesday night.

Jac Caglianone continues to prove his worth with Kansas City

It was a bit of a homecoming for Caglianone as the Tampa native took on the Tampa Bay Rays, and he did not disappoint with two more home runs on Tuesday, including one that was practically smacked off his face of the scoreboard at Tropicana Field.

Statcast had it listed at 435 feet, which feels criminally low.

On the season, Caglianone is up to .277 batting average with a .847 OPS. He now has 14 home runs on the season, 30 RBIs, and a 2.2 WAR. After speed running through the minor leagues, this is Caglianone’s first full MLB season, and now that his strikeout rate is coming down compared to last year, things are starting to click. Caglianone’s average exit velocity is also up 4.0 MPH compared to last year.

We bring this up because while five teams had a chance to pick Caglianone before Kansas City, three of those teams feel okay about the guy they did get. Cleveland took Oregon State’s Travis Bazzana with the first pick, and he is holding his own this season. Cincinnati took Wake Forest pitcher Chase Burns, and while pairing Caglianone with Elly De La Cruz would have been fun, Burns has also been a great pick.

Oakland opted for Wake Forest 1B Nick Kurtz, who has progressed at a rate faster than Caglianone and is already in the top ten for home runs in MLB in 2026. At No. 5 the Chicago White Sox took Arkansas pitcher Hagen Smith. Hard to judge this one just yet since Smith has been doing just fine when on the mound in the minors, but he was also just sent to the IR with shoulder impingement.

But that leaves us with the Colorado Rockies at No. 3, who went out and grabbed Georgia 1B Charlie Condon.

Condon had a monster 2024 campaign and won the Golden Spikes Award, but there were reasons to wonder if he was a flash in the pan. The Rockies took him at No. 3, and his time in the minor leagues, let’s just say, has been a bit more glacial compared to his peers.

His 2025 stint in the minors included 55 games at AA Hartford, where he hit .235 with 47 total hits against 67 strikeouts.

Even with that, he still got promoted to AAA Albuquerque, but it still feels like he isn’t quite ready for The Show. Condon does have a .924 OPS, but even that is only third best on his own team. He has 14 HRs, which is decent enough. 

But as a reminder, Caglianone has 14 MLB home runs.

What is most notable about Condon is that he is still struggling with strikeouts, with 67 hits against 70 strikeouts. He currently has the 4th most strikeouts of anyone in the Pacific Coast League. He has also been involved in 7 double plays, the 10th most in the league.

It’s just a reminder, as Caglianone is tearing it up with Kansas City, that Colorado should have listened to Gator fans when the draft took place, as Florida fans knew what they witnessed with Caglianone wasn’t a flash in the pan. 

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